Spano v. New York

Spano v. New York
Argued April 27, 1959
Decided June 22, 1959
Full case nameSpano v. New York
Citations360 U.S. 315 (more)
79 S. Ct. 1202; 3 L. Ed. 2d 1265; 1959 U.S. LEXIS 751
Case history
Prior4 N.Y.2d 256, 173 N.Y.S.2d 793, 150 N.E.2d 226
Holding
The Court held that the interrogation violated Spano's 14th Amendment due process rights because Spano's confession was not voluntary.
Court membership
Chief Justice
Earl Warren
Associate Justices
Hugo Black · Felix Frankfurter
William O. Douglas · Tom C. Clark
John M. Harlan II · William J. Brennan Jr.
Charles E. Whittaker · Potter Stewart
Case opinions
MajorityWarren
ConcurrenceDouglas, joined by Black, Brennan
ConcurrenceStewart, joined by Douglas, Brennan
Laws applied
Fifth Amendment

Spano v. New York, 360 U.S. 315 (1959), represented the Supreme Court's movement away from the amorphous voluntariness standard for determining whether police violated due process standards when eliciting confessions and towards the modern rule in Miranda v. Arizona. In Spano, the Court focused less on factors such as meals provided to the accused and more on whether the accused had access to legal counsel.